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Cruise Myth: OBC is as good as - or even better than - cash
The travel agent gave you $100 OBC as a little bonus to get you to sign up for the sailing. You know you’re going to have onboard expenses to cover it. The ship has your credit card to cover the rest. You don’t need to bring cash on the ship. What’s wrong with that?
Fact
Over 95% of mainstream cruise passengers have onboard charges over $200. A couple can expect to pay $1,000-$3,000 over the cabin purchase on a weeklong cruise after you buy drinks in a package or ala carte, take the automatic gratuity, sign up for wifi Internet, go on ship-purchased excursions, or charge a myriad of other expenses on the ship like specialty restaurants and shops. So sure, most passengers can safely count OBC as cash.
But there are exceptions where OBC is funny money. You may prepay your expenses before you board to save a little money. Or you and your partner may not be drinkers, don’t need Internet, cancel the automatic tips and directly pay service staff, and don’t have other expenses. In these cases you can easily have unused promotional OBC. If this happens, it’s typically lost (”use-it-or-lose-it”).
Secondly, your OBC and credit card are not a replacement for budgeting. Estimate and track your expenses so you’re not surprised by non-cabin costs - they can be 2 TIMES what you paid for your cabin!